Labor Day weekend sets record for most people flying since pandemic hit, TSA says
Despite the ongoing pandemic, over 3 million people traveled via plane during Labor Day weekend, according to the Transportation Security Administration, with Friday seeing the most individuals screened at security on any single day since March.
The holiday weekend began Sept. 4 with nearly 969,000 passengers taking to the skies and concluded Sept. 7 when more than 935,000 people passed through security, the TSA said Tuesday in a statement. Both days represent the most people screened in any single day since March 17, when the coronavirus was emerging across the nation.
Although the holiday weekend broke records since the pandemic hit, it’s still far lower than the roughly 2 million that flew in one day last Labor Day weekend, when about 8 million people traveled in total, according to TSA statistics.
“Passenger volume on the busiest day of the Labor Day weekend was up 30% from the busiest day of the July Fourth holiday weekend,” TSA Administrator David Pekoske said in the statement.
Uptick in passengers is “encouraging” for airlines
Pekoske said the increase in air travel is “an encouraging trend for the aviation sector,” which has taken heavy financial blows since the coronavirus made landfall in the U.S.
Delta Air Lines lost $6 billion in just three months when viral spread sparked fear among Americans and issued mandatory quarantines for some travelers, NPR reported.
The uptick in passengers participating in air travel also reveals Americans’ feelings toward the pandemic.
A survey of 7,000 travelers conducted in August by travel agency Skyscanner showed that “positivity around travel remains,” according to the Washington Post; 32% of Americans said it was currently safe to travel domestically. Searches and bookings for travel within the U.S. have also “increased steadily for five weeks,” the newspaper said of the survey.
But the majority remain skeptical of flying as infections continue to attack communities across the country.
A Consumer Reports survey of more than 1,000 people in June showed that 70% of respondents said flying was “ very or somewhat unsafe,” and rated hospital emergency room visits and standing in line to vote as safer environments, according to Market Watch.
The Bureau of Transportation Statistics released preliminary reports on 18 major U.S. airlines and revealed that 21.4 million passengers traveled in July, “down 73% from July 2019 (79.2 million) but up 30% from June 2020 (16.5 million).”
The lowest monthly passenger total was in April when just 3 million people traveled via plane, the BTS said.
This story was originally published September 9, 2020 at 3:26 PM with the headline "Labor Day weekend sets record for most people flying since pandemic hit, TSA says."
